RUGBY:THIS IRISH rugby team is not good for you, especially when it comes to Murrayfield; this latest Edinburgh escapade adhering to a dog-eared script. Given direction by a virtuoso Ronan O'Gara performance Ireland were comfortably the better team, yet in keeping with previous treks here and the Irish games of late, fell seriously foul of the referee and were clinging on for grim life before both sides made off into the night feeling singularly aggrieved.
As with the 19-18 win here four years ago and the 22-15 win here two years ago, the Scots were kept try-less – indeed they haven’t scored a try in eight games at Murrayfield dating back to 2009. Yet having outscored France by three tries to one, Ireland actually outscored the Scots by three tries to nil but all that again nearly counted for nothing – or at any rate very little – thanks in the main to Nigel Owens’ 13-4 penalty count to the home side. Another close finish for Nigel then.
Ireland thus knew how France felt two seasons ago at Croke Park, when Owens awarded Les Bleus just two penalties in 80 minutes. In truth, Ireland were often their own worst enemies, especially at the breakdown where they are becoming serial offenders, especially for not releasing after the tackle. It’s an attitude thing as much as anything else, which must be undoing vast homework on referees. Maybe it’s time for a serious fine offence, or even demotion for the worst offender.
That said, two or three looked harsh, and nearly all the debatable calls regarding forward passes seemed to go Scotland’s way, not least when Eoin Reddan’s flat offload inside to Sean O’Brien, whose barnstorming support runs were perhaps the stand-out feature of the game, was wrongly called forward inside the Scottish 22. Three times Ireland were also penalised inside the Scottish 22, for not releasing the player or the ball. At least they weren’t three-pointers.
“It was edge of your seat stuff alright,” admitted Kidney. “I thought we did well to get three tries and then probably didn’t do so well. Scotland came back into it, there were a couple of penalties that were of our own making and then I’d like to take a good look at some of the others. But it is what it is and we managed to get away with a win and I suppose I’ve been in it long enough to say lets’s celebrate tonight.”
Andy Robinson had immediately launched into Owens’ performance at the outset of his press conference, thereby setting the tone for the largely one-dimensional and tedious post-match debate. “There are a number of issues I have about the game,” he began in a state of high dudgeon, “one of them being the high Irish penalty count and no sin bins and their ability to slow our ball down. Secondly, I thought the scrums just after half-time were an issue,” he said in reference to Allan Jacobsen’s yellow card for boring across on Rory Best.
“We had the Irish scrum going backwards but there was a penalty against us, then the next scrum our prop is sin-binned and that was a major turning point of the game because we were just about getting on top of the Irish and to lose a player like that is pretty hard to come back from.”
The getting-on-top part was entirely subjective.
“I have no interest in getting into a sledging match about the referee,” retorted Kidney when informed of Robinson’s remarks, though he looked rattled at what is becoming a serious issue for Ireland. “I think they have a very difficult job. We have worked the process through the referees and the referees’ manager with our games recently and in fairness to the referees over the last two games, they put their hands up and said ‘yeah, we got a few decisions wrong’.”
One wonders if Romain Poite was quite so humble. More to the point, it was clearly the IRB’s review that came to these conclusions; Kidney interjecting at one point to reveal that on reviewing Dave Pearson’s performance in the French game, “there was penalties given against us in the last game that have since been acknowledged that at least one of those should have been turned around and on two more occasions there should have been a penalty to us awarded just before there was penalties awarded against us.”
As for Scotland, they again gave the impression of a team endeavouring to play a game for which they are simply ill-equipped. And whereas Kidney’s decision to opt for the superior game management of the older O’Gara was handsomely rewarded, it was only when Parks replaced young Ruairidh Jackson that there was real balance to their game and even shape to their attack.
Admittedly, Robinson was also full of praise for Ireland’s performance, which contained far more attacking variety. “I’m impressed with Ireland, it was a good Test match between two teams that wanted to play and I like the way they’re trying to play the game; they’ve got some very good ball carriers and they were a couple of passes away from scoring more tries; there was some desperate defence that went on. Ronan’s tactical kicking game was very good and he put them in good field position at crucial stages of the game.”
Citing their three tries despite Scotland’s traditional ability to slow down ruck ball, Kidney said: “Our field position was good enough to steer us home. We probably got into five try-scoring positions and executed three of those so they are the positives and our defence being strong.”
All that said and done, they’ll need to up their defensive line speed against Wales, and ultimately this was far too close for comfort. Also, the more proactive use of the bench had, ironically, mixed results this time.
“We have been a bit stop and start by our own standards but barring one or two decisions by everyone involved in the French game we could be in an extremely positive place. So (allowing for) the fact that those ones went against us, we’re not in a bad place,” said Kidney.
“We are quite a different unit to what we were two years ago because there are quite a number of changes in the squad and in the team, so I think we’re progressing without shouting from the roof tops that we are there yet. We have quite a bit to do.”
That about sums it up alright.
REMAINING FIXTURES
Saturday, March 12th
Italy v France, Stadio Flaminio, 2.30
Wales v Ireland, Millennium Stad 5.0
Sunday, March 13th
England v Scotland, Twickenham 3.0
Saturday, March 19th
Scotland v Italy, Murrayfield 2.30
Ireland v England, Aviva Stadium 5.0
France v Wales, Stade de France 7.45
